Speaker resigns after day of insults in parliament

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott exchanged insults while Peter Slipper narrowly survived a vote on his role as Speaker before resigning, in an emotionally-charged day in the Australian Parliament.

Transcript

icon-plusicon-minus

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: It's been an extraordinary day in Federal Parliament, and it's just culminated in a dramatic announcement from the embattled Speaker Peter Slipper. After months of high drama, culminating in a vitriolic day of debate, Mr Slipper has announced he's resigning from the Speaker's chair. We'll cross now to Mr Slipper's announcement made just a few minutes ago.

PETER SLIPPER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Despite the vote of the House in support of my continuation in office, I wish to advise that with great sadness I have decided that I should not continue as your Speaker.

Accordingly, I am having arrangements made to tender my resignation to Her Excellency the Governor-General. As honourable members know, I was very honoured to have been chosen unanimously by the House as its Speaker. I have believed deeply in the importance of the House and our constitutional, political and wider national life.

LEIGH SALES: And for the latest we're joined now from Parliament by our chief political correspondent Chris Uhlmann. Did anyone see this coming?

CHRIS UHLMANN, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, Leigh, it's certainly... you can absolutely say about today that you didn't see this coming. There was a vote in Parliament where it went by just one in favour of the Speaker. The Opposition moved against the Speaker in question time today. That is a rare thing. It's only happened once in the last decade that an Opposition has moved against a Speaker in 112 years of Parliament, Parliament has never voted a Speaker out, but right now the Speaker is still on his feet - I can see him delivering quite a long speech - and what we do know from this then is that there will be no Speaker in Parliament, and until he's replaced Parliament can't sit.

LEIGH SALES: So what does it mean for the Government? Because of course we know that Mr Slipper came into the Speaker's chair in a bid for them to shore up their numbers in the Parliament?

CHRIS UHLMANN: It remains to be seen what else Peter Slipper will do. Of course, if he's decided that he was going to step out of this position and step out of Parliament, that would force a by-election. Now, we would expect in the seat he holds in Queensland the Coalition would win that quite easily and Parliament would return to the numbers that it enjoyed or the Government enjoyed and the Opposition enjoyed at the beginning of Parliament, but that's a long way down the road. He hasn't said anything at this stage - I can't hear him at the moment - but he hasn't said anything up to the point that I was listening him to that indicated he would also be stepping out of Parliament. So there are a lot of unanswered questions yet.

LEIGH SALES: Including who will be the next Speaker. Are there any tips as to who might step into that role?

CHRIS UHLMANN: I think it's most likely that Anna Burke, who has conducted herself magnificently as the Deputy Speaker while she's Peter Slipper still retained the role, still retained the salary, but did not enter Parliament to ask as Speaker, that she will get that job.

LEIGH SALES: Chris Uhlmann, thank you, we'll leave it there.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Before this development tonight, of course, it was a pretty amazing day in the Parliament; two years of anger boiled over with the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister exchanging insults and invective during a rare move to sack the Speaker, as Chris explained. Tony Abbott said that Julia Gillard's Government should have "died of shame", a nasty echo of the sleight directed at her father. The Prime Minister unleashed on Mr Abbott's character, calling him a misogynist. Here's Chris Uhlmann with the day.

PETER SLIPPER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is the first opportunity that I've had to affirm to the House that deny allegations.

REPORTER: Peter Slipper has said little publicly since the sexual harassment case against him was launched.

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: If we can have a bit of decorum today.

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's been six months since Peter Slipper last graced the Speaker's chair. He still has the title and the salary, but has stood down from chamber duties while sexual harassment claims against him are tested in the Federal Court. He might be out of sight in Parliament but he isn't out of mind.

TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER: This Speaker is no longer a fit and proper person...

JULIE BISHOP, DEPUTY OPPOSITION LEADER: His occupancy of the Speaker's role is no longer tenable.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: The damage that's been done to this Parliament has damaged us all.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Court disclosures of more base text messages sent by Peter Slipper are the latest bludgeon in this Parliament.

TONY ABBOTT: And I only allude to the gross references to female genitalia which are contained in the uncontradicted, undenied evidence before the court about the conduct of this Speaker.

CHRIS UHLMANN: This was the opportunity the Coalition had been seeking since Peter Slipper deserted its ranks for the trappings of office in November.

TONY ABBOTT: ...I move that, as provided for by section 35 of the Constitution, the Speaker be removed from office immediately.

CHRIS UHLMANN: In 112 years of Federal Parliament, no Speaker has ever been voted from office, and it's a decade since an opposition has tried. The arguments were that the vile content of some of the messages brings the highest parliamentary office into disrepute, and one which refers to a female Coalition frontbencher as an "ignorant botch" reveals bias.

TONY ABBOTT: ...in undenied, uncontradicted evidence before a court against a member of this House by someone who is charged to act without fear or favour.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But Peter Slipper is a surrogate in this fight. The Coalition's war is with Julia Gillard.

TONY ABBOTT: Well, I say to this Prime Minister: just as the Speaker has failed the character test, you, Prime Minister, are about to fail the judgment test. And every day that you, Prime Minister, run a protection racket for the current Speaker - just as you ran for months and years a protection racket for the Member for Dobell - you indicate your unfitness for high office as well.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The Prime Minister stepped up to the fight and her attack was direct and personal.

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: I will not be lectured by sexism and misogyny by this man, I will not. And the Government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever. The Leader of the Opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office. Well I hope the Leader of the Opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation. Because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror. That's what he needs.

CHRIS UHLMANN: And if you've ever wondered if things like this make the Prime Minister's blood boil, then wonder no more.

JULIA GILLARD: I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said, "Ditch the witch". I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a "man's bitch". I was offended by those things. Misogyny, sexism, every day from this Leader of the Opposition.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Perhaps, on reflection, the Opposition Leader might regret some of his choice of words today, given part of what he said so closely resembled the attack on Julia Gillard launched by broadcaster Alan Jones.

TONY ABBOTT: And every day the Prime Minister stands in this Parliament to defend this Speaker will be another day of shame for this Parliament; another day of shame for a Government which should already have died of shame.

JULIA GILLARD: The Government is not dying of shame, my father did not die of shame. What the Leader of the Opposition should be ashamed of is his performance in this Parliament and the sexism he brings with it.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Late this afternoon the Speaker released a statement saying that the text messages were intended to be private, but nothing excused their content. He said he understood why women would be offended by them and apologised unreservedly. He kept his job today by one vote.

ANNA BURKE, DEPUTY SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The result of the division is ayes 69, noes 70. The question is therefore negated.